Automated application modeling for application virtualization

Abstract

Automated application modeling for application virtualization (auto-modeling) may be incorporated into an application installer and/or other suitable component of a computer operating system. Auto-modeling may be performed by an auto-modeling agent. The auto-modeling agent may employ one or more of multiple auto-modeling strategies. The auto-modeling agent may assess one or more of a particular application, application installation package and/or application environment in order to determine a suitable auto-modeling strategy. Auto-modeling strategies may include active auto-modeling and passive auto-modeling. Active auto-modeling strategies may require at least partial installation and/or execution of the application to be modeled, whereas passive auto-modeling may generate corresponding auto-modeling data independent of application installation and/or execution, for example, by obtaining suitable data from a corresponding application installation package.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 installing, by a computing device, at least one application in an application environment; and 
 modeling, by the computing device, the at least one application for virtualization, the modeling comprising:
 monitoring one or more calls to one or more application programming interfaces during the installation of the at least one application; and 
 using data of the one or more calls to generate application modeling data for virtualization of the at least one application. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the modeling the at least one application begins in response to beginning to install the at least one application. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 instantiating the application environment independent of an application environment associated with a computer operating system. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 3 , wherein the application environment is instantiated based on, at least, an application environment specification. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4 , wherein the application environment specification comprises a baseline application environment specification. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 updating the baseline application environment specification to include the at least one application. 
 
     
     
       7. A computer-implemented system comprising:
 one or more processors; and 
 memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, the memory comprising:
 an application installer executable by the one or more processors to install at least one application in an application environment; 
 an application modeler executable by the one or more processors to at least partially model the at least one application for virtualization, wherein the at least partial modeling comprises monitoring one or more calls to one or more application programming interfaces during the installation of the at least one application by the application installer and using data of the one or more calls to generate application modeling data for virtualization of the at least one application; and 
 an auto-modeling agent executable by the one or more processors to direct said at least partial modeling. 
 
 
     
     
       8. The computer-implemented system of  claim 7 , wherein the application installer comprises the auto-modeling agent. 
     
     
       9. The computer-implemented system of  claim 7 , wherein the auto-modeling agent is further executable by the one or more processors to direct the application modeler to begin modeling said at least one application responsive to the application installer beginning to install said at least one application. 
     
     
       10. The computer-implemented system of  claim 7 , wherein the auto-modeling agent is further executable by the one or more processors to direct the modeling based on an auto-modeling rulebase. 
     
     
       11. The computer-implemented system of  claim 10 , wherein the auto-modeling agent comprises a rulebase updater configured to, at least, update the auto-modeling rulebase from an auto-modeling repository. 
     
     
       12. The computer-implemented system of  claim 11 , wherein the rulebase updater accesses the auto-modeling repository through a public computer network. 
     
     
       13. The computer-implemented system of  claim 7 , wherein the system further comprises:
 an application environment associated with a computer operating system; and 
 an application environment baseline component executable by the one or more processors to instantiate the application environment independent of the application environment associated with the computer operating system. 
 
     
     
       14. The computer-implemented system of  claim 13 , wherein:
 the system further comprises at least one application environment specification; and 
 the application environment baseline component is executable by the one or more processors to instantiate the application environment based on, at least, said at least one application environment specification. 
 
     
     
       15. The computer-implemented system of  claim 14 , wherein said at least one application environment specification comprises a baseline application environment specification. 
     
     
       16. The computer-implemented system of  claim 15 , wherein the application environment baseline component is executable by the one or more processors to update the baseline application environment specification to include said at least one application. 
     
     
       17. The computer-implemented system of  claim 7 , wherein the system further comprises:
 the application environment into which said at least one application is to be installed; and 
 a terminal services component having an install mode insulating the application modeler from detecting changes to the application environment unrelated to installation of said at least one application. 
 
     
     
       18. One or more computer-readable storage memory to store instructions that are executable by one or more processors to:
 receive a request to install an application; 
 determine whether to perform active auto-modeling or passive auto-modeling based on, in part, a classification of an application installation package associated with the application, the classification of the application installation package being determined from at least one of a package signature of the application installation package or one or more package classification rules that specify whether to classify the application installation package for active auto-modeling or passive auto-modeling; 
 in response to determining to perform the active auto-modeling,
 identify application programming interfaces that are used to install an application; 
 install the application; 
 collect call data during the installation of the application via the identified application programming interfaces; and 
 model the application for virtualization based on the collected call data. 
 
 
     
     
       19. The one or more computer-readable storage memory of  claim 18 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to collect the call data via application programming interface hooks that intercept one or more calls to the application programming interfaces by an application installer.